Indian cricket team all-rounder Hardik Pandya has been facing a lot of criticism due to his performance as Mumbai Indians skipper in the ongoing IPL 2024. The decision taken by the MI management to appoint him as the captain in place of Rohit Sharma was not received well by a section of the fanbase and things got worse as MI won just 4 out of their 13 matches in the competition. Hardik's captaincy came under the scanner with former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen and former South Africa and Royal Challengers Bengaluru star AB De Villiers also weighing in on the conversation.
Former India batter and current Kolkata Knight Riders mentor Gautam Gambhir was not happy with the massive criticism that Hardik faced and he went on to say that both De Villiers and Pietersen's records as captain are also not impressive. Gambhir spoke specifically about De Villiers' failure to win an IPL title with RCB and said that except for his own scores, he has achieved nothing in the IPL.
"What was their own performance like when they were the captain? I don't think, be it Kevin Pietersen or AB de Villiers, they had any performance in their career with leadership. Nothing. If you pick and see their records, I think they are worse than any other leader. I don't think AB de Villiers has achieved anything in the IPL apart from his own scores. I don't think he has achieved anything from a team's point of view, Hardik Pandya is still an IPL-winning captain. So you should only compare oranges to oranges. Not apple to oranges," Gambhir said in an interaction with Sportskeeda.
Kolkata Knight Riders became the first team to secure their spot in the IPL 2024 playoffs while RCB are still in the hunt for a top 4 finish. The Bengaluru side have to win its final game of the league campaign, against Chennai Super Kings, in order to remain in the hunt but also hope that certain other results fall in their favour.